Louis Sclavis (clarinet); Gilles Coronado (guitar); Benjamin Moussay (piano, keyboards); Keyvan Chemirani (percussion)Recorded March 2014The saxophonist, Jan Garbarek once said that as one’s core sound does not change, only the context in which it is heard. This basic truth is not only embraced, but exploited to the full by Louis Sclavis as a cursory glance through his discography will show, and this restless search for new settings to place his highly distinctive clarinet playing is continued on this tenth ECM album. Following on from Sources in 2011, he has retained the Atlas Trio, which in itself has an unusual instrumentation and introduced to the mix the talents of Iranian percussionist, Kevyan Chemirani.Chemirani has played in many different musical formats from classical Iranian music to jazz and improvised music. A master of the bendir, and the zarb or tombak, he brings an exciting new dimension to the Atlas Trio’s cross genre musical spectrum that already includes jazz, free improvisation, chamber music and rock. Many of which are heard on Silk and Salt Melodies. Sclavis likens the music to a nomadic journey, and if the music takes in jazz along the way it also journeys away from this source before finding a route back. The opening tracks of the album introduce the quartet in reflective pieces that weave lyrical bass clarinet with the new rhythms brought to the musical journey by the percussionist. This new relationship brings with it a thrilling duet section on ‘L’homme sud’between Mounssay’s piano and Chemirani. Mounssay also introduces ‘L’autre rive’ which is picked up with a haunting melody stated by Sclavis and Coronado, before being disturbed by slashing chords and dissonance from piano and guitar. It is this juxtaposition of ideas and methodology, the shift between melody and texture that give the music its vitality. From here on the rhythmic element of the quartet is brought more to the fore, with Chemirani’s insistent percussive motifs driving the clarinettist forward into ever more searching solos as heard on ‘Sel et soie’, or seesawing from gentle lyricism to abstraction as on ‘Des Feux Iontains’. Another powerful and intelligent statement of intent from Louis Sclavis, that suggests that the search for new musical horizons is far from finished.Reviewed by Nick Lea

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